Phillip Island WorldSBK Test Final Times – Report – Images

WorldSBK 2025

Phillip Island Test

The potential for showers had been forecast for this afternoon and the light precipitation arrived just after 1230.   An hour later, just before the final Superbike session, a spooky mist descended across Phillip Island. It didn’t actually seem to rain, but the mist was so dense and heavy that it still managed to blanket the circuit with a light coating of water.

The first Superbike riders to head out of pit-lane and confront the mist and sketchy track surface in this afternoon’s final two-hour test session were Remy Gardner and Tetsuta Nagashima.  They were eventually joined by Alvaro Bautista, Garrett Gerloff and Dominique Aegerter. But 45-minutes into the session they were the only five riders that had turned a wheel. Bautista was quickest at 1m44.503. Clearly the track was offering up even less grip than it looked.

Just as the final hour of the two-day test approached, Yari Montella, Ryan Vickers and Danilo Petrucci hit the track. Petrucci went top with his first flying lap, a 1m43.750, then returned to the pits.  The circuit was then silent for quite some time.  Patches of water on the exits of turn 3 and turn 11 making track conditions far from perfect.

Finally, with less than half an hour left in the session, Toprak Razgatlioglu ventured out on track with a handful of other riders following, only for them to return straight back to the pits after one flying lap.

Teams were now taking the opportunity to practice the compulsory stop they will be required to make during the races this weekend.

With around 15 minutes remaining the track had cleaned up enough for some respectable lap-times to be set. The bravest early on was Scott Redding with a 1m30.635 before the Brit then took to the gravel at turn eight.

Then it was on for young and old…

Alex Lowes the first in the 29s this afternoon, a 1m29.991 to knock his brother from top spot.  The Bimota man then improved to a 1m29.808 but that didn’t stop Andrea Iannone displacing him at the top of the timing monitors, a 1m29.797 to the Italian.

Not for long though as Nicolo Bulega once again reasserted his dominance on top, pretty much where he has been throughout the two days of testing. A 1m29.634 to Bulega, who was then relegated to P2 by Toprak Razgatlioglu, a 1m29.342 to the World Champion.

Bulega returned fire with a 1m29.133 just before the chequered flag.  Toprak improved to 1m29.247 but Bulega still had the hammer down on his final lap… Bulega was three-tenths quicker at the third split only for the timing system to then declare the session finished… Nonetheless, Bulega completed his perfect record of topping all four sessions that took place across the two days of testing.

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Nicolo Bulega

“It was an excellent two days of testing, so we confidently arrived at the season’s first round. We have worked hard to gather important information that we can use to iron out the final details in these two days before free practice. I feel confident because this is my favourite circuit. I can’t wait to get back on track“.

Toprak had a huge crash on Monday and is pretty battered and bruised. The BMW squad have been chasing traction control problems throughout this test. Asked if one particular area of his body hurt more than the rest the Turk responded with, “my arse!”

Remy Gardner crashed at turn three on his final lap. The Australian finished the final session 11th. Gardner set his best lap on Monday afternoon, a 1m30.223, and was one of only a few riders not to improve at all today, ending the test 16th on combined times.

Remy Gardner

“There’s work to do, we’re aware of that, but let’s take the positive things from the test. We were able to clock a decent amount of laps and gain useful data for the beginning of the season. We tried many things during these two days and now it’s time to put everything together to be ready for the first round. Now let’s enjoy a bit of time to rest and recharge our batteries, we need to be fully prepared for the season opener and I cannot wait to see all the Australians fans in Phillip Island!”

Toprak actually did his fastest time of the test in that rushed end to the fourth session, a 1m29.247 to end the test fourth.

The only other rider to do his fastest lap of the two-day test in that final session was Dominique Aegerter, but he was 17th on combined times, just behind his GYTR GRT team-mate Remy Gardner.

Both yesterday and in the morning session, Nicolo Bulega had been in the 28s. When all was said and done at the end of the two days the aruba.it Ducati rider was still the only one to have recorded 28s. The best of which was a 1m28.680 as the two-hour morning session came to a close just after 1100. Half-a-second clear is some sort of statement by the 25-year-old Italian.

Andrea Iannone had found another tenth since yesterday to again go second quickest this morning, but his 1m29.162 was still half-a-second off Bulega’s benchmark. Iannone lost a lot of time with technical problems on Monday so his pace is encouraging.

Andrea Iannone

Danilo Petrucci found half-a-second this morning to almost level-peg with Iannone, both recording 1m29.1s.  Both Iannone and Petrucci have shown good pace throughout the two days and looks pretty strong.

Alvaro Bautista will not be happy to end the test eight-tenths slower than his young team-mate but the Spaniard was still surprisingly upbeat.

Alvaro Bautista

“I’m delighted with how things went in these tests. I’ve found the feeling I’ve been seeking for a long time. Finally, we could ride on track with excellent continuity after the bad weather we experienced in Jerez and Portimao. I am also pleased with our work with the tyres, which allows us to have clear ideas.”

Andrea Locatelli has chipped away across the two days to get the Factory Yamaha and himself up to speed.  The Italian finished narrowly ahead of the Bimota pairing, the KB998 riders making an encouraging start with the new-look squad.

Andrea Locatelli

“It was important to ride these two days because I got back the feeling that I was missing in the winter tests where the track conditions were a bit tricky. I am not 100% happy just yet about every aspect, but we are for sure happy about the race simulation that I tried yesterday afternoon. At the moment, it looks like we can fight for the podium – and my goal when we arrived was to try to focus just on winning, because why not? Honestly, I want to believe until the end! Phillip Island is a special track, I have a lot of motivation to make the best result possible so this is the focus. I want to be realistic, I think we have a chance to do well here and we will try! We just need to work a little bit more on the bike on Friday, but we have more data now and more details to make the best package.”

Alex Lowes

“Our test was good. We had a few things to try in the afternoon session, but we only got a few laps in near the end. We made a pretty big change, which has given us some good direction for the weekend. The test was positive, I enjoyed it, and we stayed out of trouble. I am looking forward to the first race on the bimota KB998 Rimini. The bike has been good on used tyres, but I am ready for the tyre changes in the long races. We have practiced the wheel changes and it is the same for everyone. I enjoy the Superpole races and in effect we are going to have ‘five’ Superpole races – with a couple of pitstops in the middle. We just need to have a good Superpole qualifying session and get stuck into the races. I am feeling good and I’m ready to start the new adventure.”

Xavi Vierge the top Honda on 1m29.812.

Xavi Vierge

“It has been a very productive test, and I think we did a great job, especially after day one. We found something with the bike setup that gave me good feeling and helped me improve my race pace, so I can say I’m ending the winter test season in a positive mood. We focused a lot on the electronics to better manage tyre life, and we’re happy with the progress we made in that area too. We also practiced for a flag-to-flag situation, as that will be one of the key factors during this weekend’s races, and we feel ready. It’s just a pity that the fourth session was affected by rain, so we didn’t get chance to make any time attacks here in Australia yet. But overall, we’ve covered all areas of the setup and are ready for the race weekend. On my side, I can’t wait for it!”

Scott Redding rounded out the top ten on the Bonovo Ducati.

The morning session had experienced a red flag interruption with just over an hour remaining when Garrett Gerloff crashed at Hayshed. Fortunately, the American rider returned to the track on his spare machine, appearing unscathed after the high-speed incident. The same could not be said for his ZX-10RR. 

Tarran Mackenzie suffered a fall at Siberia shortly before the morning session concluded. He completed a few laps without a transponder this afternoon and practice pit stops with the Petronas Mie Honda Racing Team.

Tarran Mackenzie

“This morning’s session was very useful, as we figured out a few things between Monday and Tuesday’s sessions and had more of an understanding as to where we need to improve. Unfortunately, I had a little crash, which put a premature end to that session and then unluckily, it rained on and off during the afternoon session which meant we weren’t able to get any laps in at all. The positive thing is that we have more of a direction heading into the race weekend. Yesterday’s track time was valuable and now we look ahead to this first round, when we’ll do our best to start the 2025 season on a high.”

World Superbike riders and their teams will now spend many hours examining their data ahead of the race weekend kicking off with FP1 on Friday at 1120.

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